free book summaries, Product Description This volume is a comprehensive introduction to the field of quality management, integrating the emerging body of knowledge in the areas of quality theory, quality assurance, and quality control. The author's practical approach provides examples, allowing readers to participate in and manage quality improvement in manufacturing, government, and service organizations. The volume examines differing perspectives on quality, quality theory, global quality and quality standards, strategic quality planning, the voice of the customer and the market, quality in product and process design, designing quality services, managing supplier quality in the supply chain, the tools of quality and implementing quality, statistically based quality improvement for variables, six sigma management and tools, implementing and validating the quality system. For quality control managers and other interested in greater quality management. About the Author Dr. S. Tom Foster is a professor, author, and consultant in the field of quality management. Among Dr. Fosters areas of expertise are strategic quality management, quality-based learning, service quality, Six Sigma, quality in government, and technology-based quality improvement. Dr. Foster is a professor of quality and operations management at Boise State University and also has taught at Pennsylvania State University and the University of Missouri-Columbia. Dr. Foster has professional experience in manufacturing, financial services, and international oil exploration. He has consulted for more than 20 companies, including Hewlett-Packard, Trus Joist MacMillan, Cutler-Hammer/Eaton Corp., Heinz Frozen Foods, QWEST, and Healthwise Corporation, as well as the U.S. Department of Energy. Dr. Foster served on the 1996 and 1997 boards of examiners for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award and has served as executive director for the Idaho Quality Award. Dr. Foster is on the editorial boards of the Journal of Operations Management, Benchmarking for Quality Management, and the Quality Observer. He has published more than 40 quality-related articles in such journals as Decision Sciences, the International Journal of Production Research, the Journal of Quality Management, the Decision Sciences Journal of Innovative Education, the International Journal of Quality and Reliability Management, the Quality Management Journal, and Quality Progress. He is listed in Who's Who in the World and Who's Who in America. Dr. Foster is founder of www.freequality.org, principal of Foster Management Consulting, and was awarded the ASBSU 2000 Outstanding Faculty Award. In addition, he was the winner of the 2002 Decision Sciences Institute Innovative Education Award. See all Editorial Reviews

I found the book to be well written, the author obviously knows his material quite well.

However, the author seems to be politically conservative, his viewpoint slips through in his bashing of JFK and Clinton and in other areas. That said, once I realized that political orientation of the author, I was able to put it aside and get to the meat of the matter. The author's discussion of the Baldrige process obviously comes from his extensive experience as an award examiner. His discussions of how corporations have used the Baldrige process were quite illuminating.

When I looked at the source material the author quotes from, I found one misquote and a botched bibliographic reference. For this, I blame the publisher for failing to properly fact check the book. I guess $126.67 list price does not buy much these days.

The cd material is rather ho-hum, it consist of example spreadsheets and videos.This book is very well written and contains a lot of information about quality management. I recommend this book for anyone seeking to know more about how to improve quality.

Buy Managing Quality: An Integrative Approach, Second Edition [Hardcover] textbooks online
Buy Managing Quality: An Integrative Approach, Second Edition [Hardcover] textbooks online		Buy Managing Quality: An Integrative Approach, Second Edition [Hardcover] textbooks online